Mama woulda been proud

So I found an old dead Ford hiding in the backyard of a friends place. I was working on his house but by the end of the day we were working on some brews. So I asked about the ole dead truck and I seamed to hit a sore spot. "Wont run" was the rather gruff response. Naturally I piped in with "its a diesel". Guy looks at me like "so". "Your a chemistry professor, hows it you cant make a diesel run". Well that set him off some and next offer I had was if I could make it run I could just get it outa there.

OK

so now I own a free ford 1990 250 4x4 extended cab with a one ton package and a really nicely running 7.3 in it

looks like crap but runs like a top

transfer case is a bit sticky but I havn't really dug into that yet

I've got a handle on all the WVO ( waste vegetable oil ) I could ever want so I'm thinking if I can get ahold of an aftermarket fuel filter w heater I can use the duel fuel tanks and the heater for a simple conversion.

not having much luck finding an aftermarket filter/heater tho
and I would want to rig it in a duel filter system one for diesel and the other for WVO

I also want to get a fuel tank heater in that second fuel tank if there is a cheap one out there. Its not exactly my primary car but I would like it to at least be able to run it when its cold out

cheers
B

Sounds like a sweet deal. Any idea why he couldn't get it to run?

Cool!! Nice score!
Welcome to the best ford family & fix it site on the internet. Great people - great knowledge.

Good deal and welcome to the site...

although I'm wondering why a guy from Denver is going by Boston?

The the OP. Just a FYI there is no such thing as a 1 ton package unless it IS a F350. It is just a F250

Welcome to the forum and nice truck find... Can't beat the price. Please tell us what you did to get it to run....

well it was kinda a trick to get it fired up but all in all its a diesel so how hard can it be ;-)

I started by seeing if it cranked
which it did just fine

then I checked the fuel and it was not so good so I drained the fuel tanks and bled the system

then I discovered it leaked everywhere
and I mean everywhere

I think I replaced 28 or 30 connections and all the soft lines
the filter and changed the oil I soaked the fuel pump in light oil and primed the fuel filter with motor oil

I put one descent glow plug in it and it fired right up
I kinda got lucky it wasn't a fuel pump
one of these days I might even spring for the other seven glow plugs

course then it didn't want to go faster than about 10 mph so thats when I discovered the sticky transfer case

works fine as long as you dont try and put it in 4 wheel drive

I hauled a load of hardwood back from Missouri with it a few months ago and it did great, so I'm pretty happy with it

going to do some work on it tho like replace the steering gear box and a fresh set of tires

oh ya
its got a one ton axle under the rear end although it clearly is a 250 so not sure whats up with that but I'm happy with the heavier axle
its also got a huge front suspension so I'm kinda curious as to how to figure out what options its got on it

what I really want to find for now is a fuel filter heater so I can run a duel system and start using some of this WVO and a tank heater

was kinda hoping you guys would be able to steer me in the right direction

thanks
B

you do know that a ford f250 = a 3500 chevy, right?

The same axle is used in the 350 as the 250 in the back on the single rear trucks. So, unless you have duals under the back, only think making that truck and F350 is a Dana 60 straight axle up front. I am betting you have singles in the back, so there is nothing more 1 ton about it unless you put the D60 up front. Good find though!

Yeah the rear axle in the 87-91 trucks are all Ford/Sterling 10.25" the F350 sometimes had a kingpin D60 front. You're free to legitimately say it's a 1 ton package if it has that. Either way it sounds like a great score. Welcome to the group.

Assuming you have the tall narrow radiator the cheap/easy way to go about the fuel heater - although I haven't tried it personally - there is a tank on the bottom of the radiator that is used for a tranny cooler on automatic trucks. On a manual truck the cooler is just plugged off; you can run your fuel through there to heat it.

theres some fuel heaters out there, one thread around here has a glowplug-in-a-pipe homemade to heat fuel, some use liquid to liquid heat exchangers with the coolant, and thers aftermarket ones too on google. IDK whats good or bad cause' i havent started running that stuff yet

ya its definitely got a whopping rear axle under it, I'll go look at the front again when I get off this silly computer.

will also check out the radiator so thanks for all the great info

once I get this thing set up I'll start in on the body but I need to turn a few wrenches on it before I'll be ready for paint

nice trucks you guys have in some of those avatars
kinda makes me wish for summer so I can start thnking paint

ok first things on my list with this truck is

steering gear box ( steering wheel has a mind of its own )
check outer and inner tie rod ends and the pitman arm for wear
not sure what I'll find but the steering wheel has so much play its almost funny getting it to go down the road straight

duel filters for running the WVO and a fuel heater
the heater in the radiator trick sounds great but I also want a heater in the filter area and in the tank

Transfer case. I need to get that thing sorted before it becomes a problem. Was thinking of draining it and filling with something that would cut the viscosity of any remaining oil and then drain it again after a week or so. Then fill it with the right stuff and see how it works
any ideas on cleaning it out other than that cuase although I'm a fare mechanic I have zero experience with transfer cases

cheers
B

ps
I just looked and yikes does it ever have king pin axles under the front
huge
I cant imagine this isn't a one ton set up but I'll dig around and see if I can find any identifying numbers or name plates on it
oh and the radiator is a tall boy but its got the transmission lines going into it so no such luck on taking the easy way out on the fuel heater

Boston said:

ya its definitely got a whopping rear axle under it, I'll go look at the front again when I get off this silly computer.

will also check out the radiator so thanks for all the great info

once I get this thing set up I'll start in on the body but I need to turn a few wrenches on it before I'll be ready for paint

nice trucks you guys have in some of those avatars
kinda makes me wish for summer so I can start thnking paint

ok first things on my list with this truck is

steering gear box ( steering wheel has a mind of its own )
check outer and inner tie rod ends and the pitman arm for wear
not sure what I'll find but the steering wheel has so much play its almost funny getting it to go down the road straight

duel filters for running the WVO and a fuel heater
the heater in the radiator trick sounds great but I also want a heater in the filter area and in the tank

Transfer case. I need to get that thing sorted before it becomes a problem. Was thinking of draining it and filling with something that would cut the viscosity of any remaining oil and then drain it again after a week or so. Then fill it with the right stuff and see how it works
any ideas on cleaning it out other than that cuase although I'm a fare mechanic I have zero experience with transfer cases

cheers
B

Click to expand...

If you have room to mount the thing, I have a Racor 777 coolant heated filter I'd sell for a bunch less than it went for new and it's still brand new. It'll heat off coolant as is or a 12 v can be added.

Someone may have mistakenly put some seriously heavy gear oil in that transfer case. Find out what the proper spec is for it and just change it out , you may be surprised . People have a habit of putting 140 wt gear oil in things that spec ATF that is 20 wt.

looks perfect

what do you want for it

ya I'm planing on draining whatever is in there anyway.
one thing that wasn't helping this truck out any when I got it was the transmission was way over filled
I think I siphoned 2 quarts out of it to get it down to were it was supposed to be